Glen Otis Currey

Glenn Otis CURREY had a novel idea, and the courage to back
it.Now he stands near the top of the
list of Muskegon Heights’ successful and progressive businessmen.The jeers and gibes of his friends may have
hurt, but they didn’t stop the onward progress that he and his “Muskegon
Heights Record” made.In this day and
age, it isn’t uncommon for a farmer boy to “step up” in the world, but in the
not long distant past it was quite a task.Mr. CURREY was born on a farm in Watson Township, Allegan County,
Michigan, on the 28th day of July 1881, the son of James B. and
Nellie E. CURREY.He trudged his
way to the rural school from the age of six to fifteen, finishing the regularly
prescribed eighth grade course.How
many miles he walked over fields, muddy roads, snowdrifts and ice in
accumulating his grade school education, even he doesn’t know.But the hundreds of weary miles, and the
hundreds of long hours spent in traversing them, have paid him big dividends in
later life.At the age of fifteen he
left the home fireside to seek fame and fortune in the neighboring town of
Hopkins, where he entered the printing trade in the weekly newspaper office of
that little commonwealth. After a year there, he hitched has wagon to a higher
star, going to Grand Rapids and continuing his education and thirst for
knowledge in the printing business.After a short period in the western Michigan metropolis the travel bug
bit him, and for three years he wandered through the states of north and
northwest.Chicago lured him and he
worked there for some time, two years of which he spent as foreman of the
Faithorn Printing Company, then, as now, one of the largest railroad printing
concerns in the whole country.During
this time he continually had a staff of from sixty to seventy men under his
orders.His work at the Faithorn office
came to the notice of the Shaw-Walker Company of Muskegon, and in 1901 he came
to this city to work for the Shaw-Walker organization.The company then was located in at building
which stood at the corner of Western avenue where the Elks’ Temple is now
located.The printing department moved
shortly after to a small building near the Union depot, and later into the
building it now occupies.Twenty years
ago, in 1905, he left the Shaw-Walker employment, seeking and finding a
position in the shop of the Muskegon Chronicle.He worked in this office less than a year before he was promoted
to the foremanship of the shop.At that
time the Chronicle had two linotype machines, and an old Duplex press, and only
five men working in the shop.At the
end of CURREY’s sixteenth year there, the office boasted seven
linotypes, a Webb Perfecting press and thirty employees.During the time of his foremanship at the
Chronicle, many great events took place.The elections of TAFT, ROOSEVELT and WILSON, the terrible
Titanic disaster and the World War were events of that period.In 1921, ignoring the advice of his friends
and co-workers, he left the Chronicle and began the publication of the Heights
Record, inaugurating an idea new to western Michigan, the free distribution
weekly.Chronicle workers gave him
three months to “go broke” with his new-fangled scheme, but he had the courage
of his conviction, following them to advantage.The first issue of the paper, on December 2, 1921,was published
in the basement of his home, 1008 Hoyt Street, into which he moved in
1913.They typesetting was all done by
hand, as was the presswork, on an old hand press long since relegated to the
curiosities of yesteryear.On the
Saturday following the first publication of the Record, he moved his newspaper
“plant” into the basement of the Taylor building at Peck and Broadway.Until February of the following year, the
presswork was all done by hand, at which time a Lee cylinder press was put into
operation.The year after the
installation of the press a Mergenthaler linotype machine was ordered and put
in.In 1923 three Gordon job presses
were installed, making the foundation for a commercial jobwork business.The most costly and modern machine now
included in the shop equipment is the Duplex eight-page press, installed in
September 1925.The Record office was
moved from the Taylor building to the basement of the new post office building
across the street in July of 1925.One
of the best, if not the best, equipped weekly newspaper plants in the state of
Michigan is now boasted for the Record.CURREY was one of the organizers of the Heights Board of Trade,
and since its inception has been one of the moving factors in it.With a few other progressive businessmen, he
has helped it over the rough spots and aided it in its advancement.He was the first duly elected president of
the organization, in 1921.It was under
his direction that the first annual Board of Trade picnic was held.The picnic is now the biggest event of the
year for the Trade Board.Mr. And Mrs. CURREY
have two daughters, Juanita and Elaine, both sophomores in the Muskegon Heights
high school.